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| Sunday, 09 April 2006 |
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A/L English Literature Made Easy - Novel : A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens The author: Charles Dickens was born at Portsmouth in February 1812 and died in June 1870. Charles was the second of eight children and experienced various difficulties during his childhood. The experiences of a child depicted in his novel David Cooperfield are similar to most of his childhood experience.
Oliver Twist, 'Nicholas Nikelby', 'Barnaby Rudge', 'The Pickwick Papers', 'Great Expectations', 'The old curiosity shop' and 'Bleak House' are some of his most popular novels. Dickens was supposed to be a practising novelist, a master of it and extremely popular. His fourteen major novels, were completed before his health started failing, mainly due to exhaustion, and he was unable to complete his last novel Edwin Drood. "Amidst universal lamentation" he was burried in the poets' corner of Westminster Abbey. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens was supposed to have had fallen "immediately under the spell of the powerful writer and bizarre personality Thomas Carlyle". He used the French Revolution as the background for A Tale of Two Cities, which contains within "its many connotations the whole sweep of the author's vision". The different ways of political influence causing various changes in society and the effects of revolutionary influence are reflected and symbolized by the characters of Darnay and Carton. Dicken's exceptional method of taking "hints from life" to bring his characters to the limelight and shaping his characters to suit the occasion. His construction of extremely tragic and shocking scenes of Mob violence, The Guillotine, The Wine Shop, are a reflection of the "evil and irrational" qualities within man. Dickens has clearly portrayed the character of Madame Defarge, possessing unfulfilled desire for revenge, her evil and inhuman feelings and attitudes revealing the monster in her. The contrasting scene in which the two young men Carton and Darnay who loved the same girl, the pretty daughter of Dr. Manette and in the most profound manner Sydney offering to sacrifice his life for Darnay and thus paving way for him to live with the girl both of them loved. This is a rare and highlighted quality in the structure of the image of a person. The common people oppressed by the aristocrats and violence rising to its climax-taking revenge. Defarge's wine-shop provided the backing for the commons to attack. Bastille liberating the prisoners; among them was Dr. Manette who had great influence which enabled him to get Darnay released; though arrested again, imprisoned and destine to die the following day to pay for the sins of his family members. The similarity between Darnay and Sydney cleared the way to rescue Darnay. Getting himself into the prison cell (of Darnay) Sydney made Darnay unconscious and had him removed to the carriage which was to take away Dr. Manette and Lucie from France. Carton taking Darnay's place offered himself to the guillotine for the sake of his sincere love for Lucie. Thus paving way for a happy family life for Lucie, Darnay and their child. Thus Sydney Carton's character an 'icon' symbolizing the courage and sacrifice of a god like human being. In Tale of Two Cities there's hardly any humour. It's really a story of incidents - "moving from England to France and closes down in France". The story is constructed skilfully in perfect manner. The "narrative episodes" in the novel rich in words creating the picturesque background; the flavour of historical episodes, each fitting itself into the situations created. The episodes in a Tale of Two Cities fitting into any place irrespective of country or the race. Charles Dickens a "master of English prose" aiming at focusing "the reader's attention on the narrative and his adoption of a style to suit it". His diction and narration shine in the realms of English Literature. The opening line in chapter 1 in A Tale of Two Cities, carries the rhythmic pattern of a verse. e.g. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times ..." The best of times because it brought peace and liberty to the ordinary people. Who suffered for a long time, ill-treated by the aristocrats who were supposed to be tyrants. "It was the worst of times" because it brought about the "downfall of the tyrannical rulers". Dickens extreme ability and inimitability for Metaphoric language highlighting his ability to communicate his ideas that existed at that time. The most remarkable and outstanding characteristics typical of Charles Dickens are existent in his A Tale of Two Cities. Mrs. C. Ekanayake, Retd. Specialist Teacher English, St. Anne's College, Kurunegala. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was supposed to have had fallen "immediately under the spell of the powerful writer and bizarre personality Thomas Carlyle". He used the French Revolution as the background for A Tale of Two Cities, which contains within "its many connotations the whole sweep of the author's vision". |
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